This invention relates to an apparatus and a method for shaping fiber reinforced resin matrix materials. More particularly, the invention relates to an apparatus and method used to shape the material while substantially maintaining the orientation of the fibers in the material relative to each other and the product thereof.
It is known that many thermoplastic resin materials can be shaped by means of various metal forming techniques, such as deep drawing, stretch forming, stamping, binding, etc. It is also known to reinforce the resin material with fibers such as glass, carbon, aramids and the like to provide higher strength, impact resistance and dimensional stability. However, the shaping processes of the prior art when applied to resin material structures that have fibers oriented in multiple directions suffer from the inability to maintain the orientation of the fibers relative to each other during the shaping of the structure. In many cases this leads to lower mechanical strength. One way to overcome this problem has been to hand lay-up the shaped structure from discrete segments of the fiber reinforced resin material, then consolidate the hand layed-up material into final form and in this manner control fiber orientation. This process is very labor intensive, time consuming and costly.